Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars: Outlaws is an undeniably passionate and personal jaunt through some beautiful and painstakingly curated locales. Curiosity and exploration are rewarded while an emotionally punchy tale of a lovable rogue in Kay Vess sells an adventure dripping in 80s sci-fi goodness.

Marred by some pretty significant technical issues that scream to be left in that development oven just a little longer, some thoughtful design choices help balance the experience out, delivering an overall satisfying open-world action adventure with rudimentary but flexible mechanics and a colourful cast of bandits whose knives are primed for Kay's back.

Star Wars as a franchise started with a shockwave of a debut in 1977, and since then there have been all sorts of sequels, spinoffs, and different forms of media released with the label. If it involves Lucasfilm, or the old school Lucasarts, then you are virtually guaranteed a Star Wars story that will take you to that galaxy far, far away. That doesn't, however, mean you are guaranteed the best time in your life. There have been plenty of Star Wars games released over the years that are lackluster. Hell... even some of the movies that have been released could bear that badge of dishonor. It seems like a gamble to throw the label on and try to engage a fickle fanbase, but that's what some of these entertainment companies end up doing anyway.

Star Wars: Outlaws takes place just after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. The rebels are on the back foot after a crushing defeat on the ice planet of Hoth, and the imperials are spread thin around the Outer Rim desperate to find and eliminate them. Meanwhile, crime syndicates are on the rise. The ongoing war the empire is hosting against the rebels leaves certain avenues open for criminals to make their moves, find their marks, and establish empires of their own in the underworld.

Enter Kay Vess.

Kay is a confident young woman with a chip on her shoulder due to her mother having abandoned her years before. As an adult, she's an expert slicer always looking for her next mark. Unfortunately for her, she's already made a list of enemies on Canto Bight and needs to make the next one count. She decides to hook up with a gang about to hit a big score on a new crime lord named Sliro. He's in possession of tens of millions of credits in the form of unmarked beskar, that wondrous metal we heard so much about in The Mandalorian, but he has excellent security to keep it safe. As this is all within the first hour, it's not much of a spoiler to let you know that the mission fails. However, Kay is able to hijack her own sweet ride in the process and begin to make her way in the galaxy by dealing with rebels, imperials, syndicates, and freelancers. And this is all utilized to pave the way for her return to that illustrious vault with a new crew so she can try it again.

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There's a lot to like about this game. Nix, Kay's pet is an effective tool to help you sneak past storm troopers to infiltrate Imperial Bases. Shooting down Tie fighters and recovering cargo during the space faring areas was a highlight. Taking place right after Empire Strikes Back made for some great nostalgic moments. Familiar storm troopers, droids, and aliens from the original trilogy is an easy slam dunk. Even the lack of Jedi didn't feel like a short coming as the gameplay felt like a familiar shooter instead of one-off light saber controls. Imagine Assassins Creed with a blaster on Tatooine.

The story was the low point of the game. You play as Kay Vess, a thief trying to work her way up in 6 different factions of crime syndicates simultaneously without any sort of finesse or cunning. Just betraying them to each other without ever really feeling like she was in danger. The only interesting character is an android.

I must point out that most of the characters I interacted with were women, even the storm troopers. It wouldn't have been so noticeable if the characters were written better but even Kay's story is thin and illogical.

I like the game and recommend it for Star Wars fans, just skip the cutscenes.

Really enjoying the game so far. I've encountered very few bugs, no more than any other game, really.

It can be a little bit repetitive at times but the quests are usually interesting and enjoyable.

One annoying thing is the blindingly obvious lack of male characters. I mean, there's hardly any! All important ones are male, seems to be Very disproportionate. And I am female, by the way. The Empire was supposed to be a misogynistic and alien hating organisation so it seems a bit daft there's so many women as stormtroopers and etc.

Other than that, the gameplay is good, graphics mostly great.

Really hope there's DLC !

Why does Kay's face look like play dough on PS5? An ambitious project to be sure but there are countless bugs, especially graphics wise. Space needs a serious fix as it's super tedious to pick things up with your ship. Toshara is a great bloody blur in the wilderness. Clouds are pixelated when you take off in the ship. It's 2024 people! A lot of side missions are super tedious. Furthermore, if I put something in easy I shouldn't die like I'm playing Tomb Raider on "normal." I suspect this was not finished for PS5 at launch time. Get moving on the fixes. Far to expensive for the mess you made with the graphics.